Napoli and Chelsea meet tonight in the Champions League for a knockout spot.
For Chelsea fans, there will be a familiar face in the Napoli dugout as former manager Antonio Conte aims to bring a familiar face to his former club.
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Conte is not the only one with links to both clubs. Here are five of the best players to have played for Napoli and Chelsea.
Gianfranco Zola
Napoli recognized the potential of Gianfranco Zola in the late eighties and agreed to sign the striker from the third tier for £2 million. Sef Torres. Zola won the Serie A title in his debut season, with the Italian learning from Diego Maradona at Napoli.
Zola scored 36 goals in 136 appearances for Napoli before moving to Serie A rivals Parma. He helped Crociati win the European Super Cup and UEFA Cup championships, scoring 64 goals in three and a half seasons.
Zola was recruited by Chelsea in November 1996 and he made an immediate impact. The Italian became the first player to win the FWA Footballer of the Year award mid-season, marking the start of a glorious period for the club.
Zola was one of several overseas stars to shine under Ruud Gullit and later Gianluca Vialli, helping Chelsea win two FA Cups, a League Cup, the Charity Shield, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the European Super Cup between 1997 and 2000.
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He scored 80 goals in 312 games for Chelsea and remains one of the club’s most respected figures.
Jorginho
Jorginho, the midfield metronome for Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli side, followed his former manager to Chelsea in a £57m deal in 2018. Sarri transformed Jorginho into a holding midfield role, allowing the Brazilian-born Italy international to flourish and become one of Serie A’s most influential midfielders.
Jorginho helped Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri to Europa League success in his debut season before going on to win winners’ medals in the 2021 UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
Jorginho also won the European Cup with Italy that year, a season of success that earned the midfielder the title. UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Award and third place in the Ballon d’Or Award.
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After four and a half seasons at Chelsea, he joined Arsenal.
Gonzalo Higuain
Another player Sarri seeks to reunite with at Chelsea Higuain has a reputation as one of Europe’s best centre-forwards, scoring 107 goals in 190 league games for Real Madrid before a big-money and successful move to Italy.
The Argentine set a new Serie A season scoring record with Napoli, scoring 36 goals in 35 games in the 2015-16 season.
He moved to Juventus for €90 million and won back-to-back domestic doubles in Turin, but was allowed a loan move to AC Milan and fell out of favor with Chelsea.
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Higuain struggled at Chelsea, scoring just five goals in 20 games, but he did win a Europa League medal.
Kalidou Coulibaly
It’s one of Napoli’s best deals of the century and the Italians have certainly gained value from the £6.5m move to bring Kalidou Koulibaly from Genk.
The Senegalese centre-back made 317 appearances in eight seasons and was named in the Serie A Team of the Year four times, winning the division’s Defender of the Year award in 2018-19.
After being linked with the Premier League for many years, Koulibaly joined Chelsea in 2022 for £33 million. Arguably, this move came too late in his career.
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He endured a difficult single season at Chelsea before being sold to Saudi Professional League side Al Hilal.
Romelu Lukaku
Romelu Lukaku will face his former club tonight, having played two spells at Chelsea earlier in his career.
Lukaku joined Chelsea from Anderlecht as a teenager but left after just 10 league appearances. A prolific career at Everton, Manchester United and Inter Milan convinced Chelsea to re-sign the striker in 2021 for a club-record fee of £97.5 million.
However, the move proved a disaster as Lukaku scored just eight league goals in 26 games and alienated Chelsea fans by giving controversial interviews criticizing head coach Thomas Tuchel.
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That summer, he was loaned back to Inter Milan and then temporarily moved to Roma. In 2024, he joined Naples for 30 million euros and scored 14 league goals, helping the team win the Serie A championship last season.
READ – Remembering Chelsea’s iconic Champions League comeback against Napoli
See more – Five players who have played for Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle
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